In David Browne’s biography of Sonic Youth, Goodbye 20th Century, the band’s bassist, KIM GORDON (born 1953), says: “I felt my job was not to become a good bass player…. My bass playing worked well because it was minimal.” The promise of punk was that you could just pick up an instrument and do something interesting — that who you are and what you bring to the rehearsal space is more important than your skills — and Gordon was one of the first women to make the most of this promise. Sonic Youth’s early basslines were sometimes as simple as Gordon hammering on the root of the chord. Despite her lack of technical expertise (or maybe because of it), Gordon seemed limitlessly, effortlessly cool to me when I first started listening to Sonic Youth as a teenager, because Gordon is not the “girl in the band.” She’s not the singer. She’s stylish enough to have had her own clothing line, but she’s not defined by fashion. And she’s not a diva; by all accounts, Gordon is the rock-solid foundation of the band. Basslines aren’t really noticed unless they’re absent; lead guitarists and vocalists get all the attention. But it’s remarkably easy to envision an alternate-universe Gordon-free Sonic Youth that crashed and burned, or quietly disassembled itself, rather than staying creative and relevant well into their elder statesman of No Wave status.

HiLoBooks has rediscovered 10 lost classics from science fiction's Radium Age (1904–33) era. A gorgeous paperback series — collect them all while you can!

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NEW! Coauthored by HiLobrow's Joshua Glenn. "Dozens of recommendations for games and apps to check out, plus ideas for how to 'hack' said games to keep them fresh." — Publishers Weekly | "Readers both young and old will find something appealing here, as there is a game or activity to fit every mood and every game-playing preference." — Library Journal